Today's terror
Sir: It has been 40 years since I last looked down the barrel of a gun. That is until 3.45 yesterday afternoon.
In 1956, on manoeuvres in Germany, when commanding a troop of tanks in a British armoured regiment I fired both the 20-pounder and its co-axial machine gun. At that time I was at the blunt end of the armament and was rewarded with a small disability pension.
When driving my near-70-year-old sister to London Heathrow airport yesterday afternoon we were stopped at a police block and ordered by an armed policeman to 'get out of the vehicle'. I then had the horrific experience of looking down the wrong end of the barrel of an automatic rifle when PC — of the Metropolitan Police over-zealously rested the sharp end of his gun against my throat.
Adding to this inexcusable act of allowing such a weapon to touch the person of an interviewee, it demonstrates a serious lack of proper training. On asking for formal identification of the uniformed man, both my sister and I were sniggered and jeered at by the two thuggishly behaved law enforcers.
Prevention of terrorism stop and search powers are greatly to be commended, but conducting random stops at gunpoint with such crass insensitivity is an act of gross abuse of power by inadequately supervised and trained trigger-happy policemen, lead- ing to yet more lack of respect for an already sometimes discredited body.
Charles Ranald
Manor Farm House, Petersham, Richmond, Surrey
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